q's on hooded rat coat markings

does the hooded rat's spine stripe HAVE to reach all the way to the tail for it to be considered a true hooded?
i have a feeder rat that has a white body, black head/neck & the black spine stripe only goes 1/2 way to the tail.
sorry my camera is M.I.A at the moment so i cant post a pic...
this rat is actually too big for me to feed off now and i will be taking it to the pet store on wednesday to see if they'll take it back so i can get a couple smaller rats for the 1st 2 weeks of february.
i WAS buying all the rats i needed for the month but this is the 2nd time a rat has grown too big to be fed off so i'm just gonna start buying 2 at a time.
hopefully the pet store takes it back, cuz it's a pretty nasty tempered male and i really dont wanna get stuck with it.

It doesn't have to reach all the way.
Hooded is a type of marking that is from the head, down the back. But a GOOD hooded, in show terms, should have perfect straight lines, and reach all the eay to the butt of the rat. :gj:

ah ok so when it reaches to the tail it's a show quality rat? so i DO in fact have a hooded just not show quality? gotcha. thx. :rolleyes:

Well, a show quality marking, yes. ;)
Show quality rats have different body shape requirements too.


But yes. It's still a hooded. Just a 'poor' one, as far as standards go.